[Sigia-l] What am I missing...

[Ziya Oz]

Paola Kathuria:

> If all the user interfaces that programmers were involved in
> were turned off, do you think you'd even be able to post a
> message to this list?

The key phrase here is "involved in." What was egregious with Flowser was
the notion that Amazon, often thought as a web pioneer and one of the most
prominent faces of online success, chose to let out an app with that most
abysmal interface. Unambiguously sending the message that UX just doesn't
matter. If the project wasn't important enough to hire a couple of designers
for, it should have been canned to begin with. Haven't they learned from
their movie service debacle at all?

I don't think you'd want graphical artists coding your apps for deployment.
Why is it OK then to let people who clearly have no interest/aptitude in
design to do the interface?
 
> Operating systems, the Internet, web browsers and mailers
> were created by programmers, and at a time likely without
> the help from designers.

And those that were, clearly show it. Sendmail and Outlook are two entirely
different animals.
 
> Imagine how good our deliverables would be if only designers,
> programmers and marketing folk appreciated and respected
> each others' work so that we could work together towards a
> common goal.

Quite right. The process starts with managers understanding that you do not
release product to users by letting developers play designer.
 
> Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

This is the most problematic notion of all. That somehow it's the
programmers that "feed" designers, who presumably would otherwise go hungry.
That's precisely what's wrong with the upside-down approach that *most* of
IT takes to application creation: let IT create the app, we'll let/feed the
designers dress it up at the end. UX is too important a matter to leave to
some programmers who happened to "champion user-centred design."

Design is a systematic approach to creating products/services, not something
one does to dress up what was concocted by programmers.

----
Ziya

When 2+2=4, it's development,
When 2+2>4, it's design.